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Oct. 5 Miguel Cabrera workout day interview

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Q. In a couple of days since Kansas City, how many text messages and more messages have come in congratulating you, and have there been any that really surprised you by who it was?

MIGUEL CABRERA: I think like 150 messages on my phone. It was kind of busy (laughter), texting back. I was very excited. Got congratulations from a lot of people. It kind of surprised me. I'm kind of right now staying in shape. Right now is workout day. I think my mind is going around and be ready for playoff and try to play hard, try and win some games in the playoff.

Q. When Justin was in here, he was talking about how much of a pleasure it's been to watch you play every day this year. As a hitter, what's it like to watch him pitch and how nice is it to have to not face him in a game?

MIGUEL CABRERA: It's very nice. I just do my thing. Every time he go out there it's like some anticipation is going to happen.

We're ready. We know we're going to do also perform -- we're going to be ready tomorrow because I know he focused, I know he's going to be ready to pitch tomorrow and hopefully he go deep in the game and we win tomorrow, the first game.

Q. How easy is it for you to transition from having the Triple Crown over with to now focusing on the postseason? I know you talked earlier in the week about how you didn't want the Triple Crown to be a distraction from what the team is doing. Now that all that's over with, is there a sense of relief? Is there a sense of --

MIGUEL CABRERA: Yeah, yeah, I feel much better right now. I think these two days off helped me a lot to get over the Triple Crown race, be ready and focused about tomorrow's game. Try to go play a good game tomorrow.

Q. I want to know what the reaction is in VenezuelA.

MIGUEL CABRERA: Venezuela, wow. I think they're excited back at home. I think they can't wait until I came back to Venezuela and celebrate the Triple Crown.

I don't know. I don't know how to explain that. But everybody tells, yesterday and the day before, it was kind of crazy over there. I'm happy.

Q. The depth of starting pitching your team has and the ability of the hitters to put up runs in a hurry, is this a team that's really well suited for the playoffs?

MIGUEL CABRERA: We gotta see how we're starting tomorrow. We know we've got a great ballclub. We know what we have in the clubhouse. What we need is to go out there and play hard, starting pitcher try to go deep in the game.

Hopefully the bats are starting hot, trying to give support to the starting pitcher. And we know we're going to face a very hot team like Oakland. They play unbelievable baseball right now. We have to give a lot of credit because they come behind and win their division.

And they have to be proud of that. But it's undecided right now. It's a playoff. You never know what's going to happen. And I think we're going to break the plate tomorrow.

Q. I know you use humor to kind of take the pressure off like with the Triple Crown race. How you do you do that when the pressure is on, especially coming into the playoffs, and are you going to get a tattoo for the Triple Crown?

MIGUEL CABRERA: No, no (laughter). I mean, besides the business, it's a game. I think baseball is a very fine game and you have to enjoy it. You have to go out there and have fun.

Don't get me wrong, you have to be serious at the same time. But I think when you have a team and try to have fun and get loose before the game and between innings, I think it helps you play good. That's the way I've played since I was a kid. Work. I don't think I want to change my game right now, so I go out and try and have fun and try and win some games.

You can see Oakland, they go out there and play and have fun, and they are winning. I think that's something special, it keeps everybody together. We are family here. So we gotta stay together. That's the best thing to win games.

Q. The two-homer game you had against these guys, I think it was about two, two and a half weeks ago, how big was that for you? Was that a game that got you going as a hitter? Because it seemed like that was really the point where you really kind of heated up for the stretch run. Was that a game where everything just fell into place for you?

MIGUEL CABRERA: I think we needed that. I think not only me, I think about the Tigers. We needed like somebody to get it going, like somebody go out there and push everybody in the same pace and try and win games, try to go race.

That's what we did. Everybody said we played hard. Everybody sees we play hard. When you see a guy play hard, it's kind of like you want to follow him. It's what we want to do in Detroit and the Tigers.

Somebody take off, everybody follow. It not has to be me. It does not have to be Verlander. It has to be somebody go out there and put everybody on the same page, win some games. I think we've got a lot of guys that can step up earlier in the playoff and help us to win games.

Q. What do you remember about last year when the season ended against Texas, and has there been any kind of resolve or feeling on this team that you really wanted to get back to this point and try to make the outcome a little different?

MIGUEL CABRERA: Well, I remember it was like almost half the team was hurt. We got a lot of injuries in that series. I think that injuries affect our game because it's hard to lose somebody in the postseason when you need him.

The difference about this year, I think we are at 100 percent. Everybody's healthy. I think everybody's got more experience. Hopefully we can play well. Hopefully we can win the games we need to to pass to the next series.

Q. With the Triple Crown, with all your phone calls you got and congratulatory messages, text messages, do you have one favorite as far as someone reaching out to you that really kind of blew you away?

MIGUEL CABRERA: I got a lot of them from my friends. My mom, my family are here. So they haven't had a chance to text me. I think like celebrities like LeBron James and like Carl Yastrzmenski, Frank Robinson, I think like they gave me like deep in my heart, because see these guys like talk about you is like kind of amazing because they're the best of the best, Hall of Fames. LeBron James like to me best basketball player right now. So kind of excited. Kind of surprise me.